British Open: Mentally preparing for the tournament

St. Annes, England – They are most of a generation apart, and it shows. Tiger Woods thinks it’s a serious mental adjustment to play a par-3 on the first hole of a major, and Rory McIlroy says it’s no big deal.

“It is different, there’s no doubt, because we have to be precise out of the gate and hit the ball a specific number,” Woods, 36, said of Royal Lytham & St. Annes’ 205-yard opening hole.

“Normally it’s an iron, hybrid, whatever, off the first tee, you can get it basically any distance you want, and you’re setting yourself up for the second shot. But this is totally different. And, yeah, psychologically it is different because you have to be on your game right away.”

Tough way to start, Rory?

“No, not particularly,” the 23-year-old Irishman said. “It’s just like if you start on a par 4 and you hit the fairway and then obviously that’s what it’s like. You’re just playing from a perfect lie onto the green. So it’s almost like playing the second shot to a par 4. I don’t think I’d approach it any differently.”

That maturity thing: McIlroy took a rough ride for his comments after a poor performance a year ago at Royal St. George’s, which he entered after having won the U.S. Open by a wide margin.

He shot 74-73 on the weekend to finish tied for 25th, and then vented at St. George’s, saying it was such a weird course, it wasn’t worth adapting his game to suit it.

Tuesday, he admitted it was mostly pique.

“Those comments were just pure frustration with yeah, I mean, having really high expectations going into it, coming off a major win,” McIlroy said. “Really wanting to play well, get into contention and not doing that. And blaming the weather, blaming the draw, blaming my luck, basically.

“Looking back on it a year later, I just didn’t play well enough to get into contention and didn’t handle the conditions as best as I could have. And if it’s like that again this week, you’re just going to have to knuckle down and focus and keep fighting and stay tough and try and shoot a score in bad conditions.”

Old what’s-his-name: Tony Jacklin, who won his Claret Jug at Lytham in 1969, the last Englishman to do so at home, said the pool of English contenders is much deeper now.

“Back in 1969, as far as I’m aware, Peter Townsend and myself were the only players playing in America for a start, and Peter didn’t manage to win anything over there,” he said. “Now we have a whole – you look at the world rankings, I mean, it speaks for itself ... the likes of Luke (Donald), Lee (Westwood), we’ve got the fancy dresser lad, what’s his name?”

“Poulter,” someone volunteered.

“Poulter, yeah,” Jacklin said.

All day play: With 16-1/2 hours of daylight, the Open doesn’t need to bother with split tees or worry about darkness interfering with a round’s completion, unless there’s a violent storm.

Tee times Thursday and Friday go from 6:19 a.m. to 4:11 p.m., with plenty of room at both ends. Sunrise is just after 5 a.m. and it doesn’t get dark until after 9:30 p.m.

The marquee pairings for the early Thursday/late Friday half of the draw include defending champ Darren Clarke with Ernie Els and Zach Johnson; Lee Westwood with Bubba Watson and Yoshinori Fujimoto; and Tiger Woods with Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia – two birds with one stone for swing coach Sean Foley, who works with both Woods and Rose.

Calgary’s Stephen Ames also goes early-late, with Robert Rock and Kyle Stanley.

Among the later starters Thursday, McIlroy plays with Louis Oosthuizen and Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler and Padraig Harrington are with Manuel Trappel, and Luke Donald is paired with Phil Mickelson and Geoff Ogilvy.

Bite the bullet, boys: Jacklin said complaining about the bunkering or the deep fescue is pointless.

“You really don’t get the guys who are in with a shout complaining about conditions of golf courses,” he said. “I mean, I remember Hazeltine when Dave Hill said all it needed was a dozen cows and a couple of tractors there or whatever.

“Golf courses are to be played, and you cannot get out of the fact that it’s controlling the golf ball that wins you major championships, and that’s the examination. And as tough as this is, the rough was high at Muirfield in 1966 when Nicklaus won. They had two stewards on the left and right of every hole, and that’s when Nicklaus drove with a 1iron all week. Tiger won at Hoylake with a 1iron all week. Somebody is going to do it. Somebody will figure it out and get it done.

“It’s just getting your head ’round it and getting on with it. Whingeing won’t get it.”

Bunker mentality: Masters champ Bubba Watson reckons he was in only two of Lytham’s 205 bunkers in his practice round Monday.

“Not that I counted, but there’s 17 (bunkers) on 18, and there’s nine on No. 1. I don’t understand why there’s that many, but they didn’t ask me to design it,” he said, smiling. “They should have just threw one more on 18 and made it 18 on No. 18.”

Watson admitted it doesn’t exactly come naturally to him to gear down and hit irons off tees.

“No. I’ve got issues in my head,” he said. “It’s something I’ve never done. It’s just I have to learn that. I’ve done it in some places, but I have to really focus and concentrate more when it comes to that, really get my targets and my irons off the tees to make sure that I’m playing safe.”

Asked if he realized that a lefty, Bob Charles of New Zealand, had won the Open here in 1963, Watson said: “In 1963, I was 15 years away from being born, so no, I did not know.”

Get outta town: Lee Westwood said, no, he had not managed to get tickets to any of the London Olympic events.

“I’m going to miss the mayhem and be out of the country, so I won’t be available for security duties,” he said, drawing a big laugh at the expense of the Olympic security contractor, which is currently facing a British parliamentary third-degree on how it managed to come up several thousand officers short of its promised quota.

“I shall be in America the duration of the Olympics,” said Westwood, who is relocating to Florida next year. “So it’s a shame. I would like to have gone. It’s very special for London to be hosting the Olympics, and I hope it runs smoothly.”

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